If all things go as planned, this year's holiday fliers won't have to turn off their smartphones at any point during their trip. The Federal Aviation Administration announced today that airlines can safely allow passengers to use portable electronic devices during all phases of flight. But first the competing companies must each submit plans to the government department detailing their plans to manage the electronics, and policies could potentially vary among each airline.

We've all been there: for 20 minutes during takeoff and landing, the cabin of an American airliner becomes a virtual Faraday cage as every passenger is told to turn off everything with a battery, from the latest Android superphones to the humble Game Boy. This practice has been heavily criticized in the last few years, and there's finally some real movement towards tossing it out the window. The Wall Street Journal reports that a Federal Aviation Administration advisory panel has recommended approving electronic devices for use during takeoff and landing, including WiFi data access.

Hey! Good news! The F.A.A is going to take another look at its stance on "no digital devices during take-off/landing" policy. Sounds pretty promising, right? Not so fast -- this process could take... well, forever. Why is that? Because in order to change the policy, every single device would have to be tested. One at a time. On every plane in existence. No, I'm not kidding.

For example, if the F.A.A wanted to approve Amazon's Kindle for use on planes during taxi, take-off, and landing, then it would have to test every single version of the Kindle (and Fire) on every single plane, on every single airline.